Dark Intruder (1965 film)
Dark Intruder (1965), AKA Black Cloak
Summary
"He killed with the power of demons a million years old!" In this failed TV pilot turned feature film, Police call in an amateur Victorian seventh-son-of-a-seventh-son occult detective and his dwarf manservant and Chinese sorcerer sidekicks to help solve series of sinister murders committed in connection with a San Francisco socialite's monstrous twin.
Details
- Release Date: 1965
- Country/Language: UK, English
- Genres/Technical: Mystery, Horror, Adventure, Fantasy, black-and-white
- Runtime: 59 min (generally formatted for a 30-minute commercial television slot)
- Starring: Leslie Nielsen, Peter Mark Richman, Judi Meredith, Charles Bolender, Werner Klemperer, Peter Brocco
- Director: Harvey Hart
- Writer: Barré Lyndon
- Producer/Production Co: Jack Laird, Shamley Productions
- View Trailer: (link)
- IMDB: (link)
Ratings
MPAA Ratings
- Rated: (not rated) (roughly equivalent to a PG for mild Violence)
Tentacle Ratings
A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:
- SS___ (Two Tentacles: Barely Lovecraftian; could be a very loose adaptation)
A pulp detective story with a few occult elements, peppered liberally with references to general "Yog-Sothothry", apparently at least partly inspired by an entry in Lovecraft's commonplace book: "Man has miniature Siamese twin—exhibit in circus. Twin surgically detached, disappears. Does hideous things with malign life of its own."
Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.
Reviews
Review Links:
- Mike Davis at Lovecraft eZine, (link) - "...A little gem of a black and white thriller... I was surprised how cleverly elements from different pulp stories were mixed together...."
Synopsis
Spoiler Section (Highlight to Read)
In this failed TV pilot turned feature film, Police call in an amateur Victorian seventh-son-of-a-seventh-son occult detective and his dwarf manservant and Chinese sorcerer sidekicks to help solve series of sinister murders committed in connection with a San Francisco socialite's monstrous twin.
Notes
Comments, Trivia, Dedication
- This was actually intended to be the pilot for a TV series, but was deemed "too dark" for 1960s mainstream television; the series was never made, and the pilot was re-purposed into a one-hour feature film.
Associated Mythos Elements
- TO DO
- Setting: Gaslight
- cult: The Crimson Cult (name-dropped in dialogue)
- deity: Azathoth (name-dropped in dialogue)
- deity: Dagon (name-dropped in dialogue)
- deity: the "banished gods" Nyogtha and Garoth (name-dropped in dialogue) (Garoth is a creation of Robert H. Barlow, a winged, satanic being)
- deity: Utuq, God of the Night (name-dropped in an invocation)
- deity: Broosha, Ruler of the East (name-dropped in an invocation)
- demons: Asmodeus, Azazel, Maskim (name-dropped in an invocation)
- demons: Shaitan and Opun, "Father and Mother of Mindless Chaos" (name-dropped in an invocation)
- location: the Hoggar region of North Africa (mentioned in connection to The Crimson Cult, Azathoth, and Dagon; supposed in the Cthulhu mythos to be a survival of Atlantis)
- tome: The Cabala of Demonic Possession by "J. Drail" (Jack Laird)
